Few folks embody the romance of Manhattan greater than Daniel C. Levine and Bryan Perri. Mr. Levine started performing on Broadway within the mid-Nineteen Nineties, showing in hits like “Les Miserables” and “Mamma Mia!” Mr. Perri, a Broadway music director and conductor, led the orchestra for “Depraved” for 5 years and is now hooked up to the Alanis Morissette musical “Jagged Little Capsule.”
But the couple, who’re married, discovered magic within the air some 60 miles northeast of Instances Sq. — in Ridgefield, Conn., the arts-centric city that butts up towards Westchester County in New York.
In 2016, they took up everlasting residence in Mr. Levine’s weekend home in Ridgefield, a 1942 cottage that after belonged to Jolie Gabor, the mom of Zsa Zsa, Eva and Magda Gabor. “It’s set upon a hill in a clearing within the woods,” Mr. Levine mentioned, including that the situation required them to “renovate the hell out of it.”
Three years in the past, he helped discovered ACT (A Modern Theatre) of Connecticut, a fount of classics like “Evita” and “Godspell,” in addition to new productions. Mr. Levine, 49, is the inventive director, and Mr. Perri, 42, is the music supervisor. The 182-seat theater is in a reconstituted constructing on the previous campus of the Schlumberger analysis laboratory, which Ridgefield acquired in 2012.
ACT is Ridgefield’s first Fairness theater, however not its solely performing-arts spot. The 21-year-old Ridgefield Playhouse usually places on greater than 300 one-night exhibits a 12 months, together with concert events and comedy acts, whereas the Ridgefield Theater Barn is embarking on a 4,800-square-foot enlargement of the previous dairy barn that has been its house for greater than half a century.
This lake-dappled city of 25,000 in Fairfield County additionally has its personal contemporary-art museum (the Aldrich), historical past museum (Keeler Tavern Museum and Historical past Middle), nonprofit first-run cinema (Prospector Theater), symphony orchestra and dance conservatory. ACT’s conjoined neighbor is a Philip Johnson constructing that the architectural and inside design studio BassamFellows pristinely renovated as its headquarters. (The constructing is open for gawking, with its exhibition of masterworks of recent design on view by appointment by way of Sept. 4.)
Jennifer Rose DiLaura, the chair of the Ridgefield Arts Council, recognized greater than 20 artistic nonprofit arts teams in all, noting that “the great thing about this city and its organizations is its collaborative spirit.”
In April, Ridgefield turned the primary municipality in Connecticut to have a delegated “cultural arts district,” which covers a portion of its picturesque Most important Avenue and close by areas.
“Westport was a little bit upset that Ridgefield was the primary to be acknowledged, however our folks labored very onerous at it,” mentioned Rudy Marconi, who has served for seven consecutive phrases because the city’s first selectman.
The humanities are the “engine that drives our neighborhood,” he mentioned. “Whenever you mix arts and tradition with an excellent college system, open house trails and a gorgeous Most important Avenue, there’s not so much left to do.”
When, within the Fifties by way of the ’70s, Ridgefield turned a bed room neighborhood to firms that unfold into the suburbs, it modified from a spot of socioeconomic range into one in every of virtually uniform prosperity. The acquisition in 2012 of the 45-acre Schlumberger campus supplied land for a housing improvement on the middle of city with 54 items, 45 of which have been priced within the low- to mid-$400,000s and have been snapped up instantly. Just a few different multifamily developments adopted, however Ridgefield at present presents principally single-family properties with a median listing worth of $925,000.
Higher financial range, Mr. Marconi mentioned, is “occurring slowly however absolutely.” He sees a chance to construct reasonably priced housing close to the city’s rail station in Branchville, on the east aspect of city. Making a transit-oriented improvement wouldn’t solely diversify the housing inventory however cut back automotive dependence and open job alternatives for commuters to cities like Stamford and Norwalk alongside the practice line. “The holdup is sewage,” he mentioned.
What You’ll Discover
Ridgefield’s 35 sq. miles shade from forested hills to equestrian stretches to lake communities with transformed summer season cottages to suburban buying areas with chain shops. However the city’s Most important Avenue — lined with towering maples and historic homes, and hung with overflowing flower baskets in summer season — is its most identifiable characteristic and largest lure.
Peggy Marconi, an agent with Neumann Actual Property in Ridgefield, who’s married to the primary selectman, mentioned in her 24 years of promoting homes, some two dozen folks have proven up at her workplace, seized by the urge to purchase in Ridgefield after driving down Most important Avenue for the primary time. (Such encounters, she mentioned, usually occurred after a spouse ordered her husband to “discover a place to park; that is the place we’re transferring.”)
“I couldn’t perceive why anybody would pay Westchester taxes in comparison with Ridgefield,” mentioned Sarah Patterson, an agent with Coldwell Banker, referring to property taxes that may be double what’s discovered east of the New York-Connecticut state line. “Simply drive down Most important Avenue and try it. Now folks have caught on and there’s that inflow.”
The downtown space presents comfort to retailers, eating places, museums and parkland.
Karen and Wealthy Calo, retired human sources executives at IBM who’ve lived in Ridgefield for 35 years, most not too long ago within the semirural Ridgebury part about six miles northwest of downtown, imagined a life-style with simpler entry to retailers and companies, and fewer property upkeep. They seemed for a rental as removed from plain vanilla as they might discover, and found one on Most important Avenue.
Their new home, within the Elms improvement, dates from 1760 and was operated as a tavern from 1799 to 2013. “Wealthy and I bear in mind having eaten right here,” Ms. Calo mentioned. It’s set close to a transformed 18th-century inn and a cluster of recent townhouses, throughout the highway from Ballard Park, which presents twice-weekly free concert events in the summertime, and down the road from the Ridgefield Library and neighboring Prospector movie show. (The library acquired an addition in 2018 that enlarged it to 44,000 sq. toes; the Prospector was based in 2014, and 75 % of its workers self-identify with a incapacity.)
Ridgefield additionally has 5 “recreation communities,” together with Westmoreland, Mimosa Estates and West Mountain Estates, which have been developed on former non-public estates and farmland, and supply residents neighborhood swimming pools and tennis courts. (Home-owner affiliation charges vary from $500 to $2,000 a 12 months, Ms. Marconi mentioned.)
Among the finest offers are discovered within the small homes in Ridgefield’s lake communities, with entry to recreation areas and water sports activities, actual property brokers mentioned. A 1959 cottage at Rainbow Lake, about 5 miles north of downtown, is at present in the marketplace for $449,00, with annual taxes of $6,997. A 3-bedroom ranch home, inbuilt 1970 on close by Fox Hill Lake, is asking $410,000, with taxes of $6,521.
Ridgefield additionally has three rental complexes for residents 55 and older, in addition to an 86-unit assisted-living neighborhood on the previous Schlumberger property. Founders Corridor is the city’s donor-supported senior middle, providing health courses, social occasions, educational programs and lectures, a lot of it free to the three,320 lively members.
Although the humanities are distinguished, they don’t eclipse curiosity in sports activities, residents mentioned, as has been evident by the eye showered on Kieran Smith, the 21-year-old Ridgefield native who gained a bronze medal swimming the 400-meter freestyle on the Tokyo Olympics. The city presents a recreation middle with a wellness middle, a skate park and a 25-yard-long pool. An all-inclusive household membership for residents prices $1,023 a 12 months.
What You’ll Pay
In July, the median sale worth of Ridgefield properties was $835,000, a rise of 8 % since February, in line with data supplied by Karla Murtaugh Properties. Properties offered at a mean of two % over asking worth, in contrast with a sale-to-list worth of 99 % six months in the past.
“Traditionally, we’re very gentle on stock,” mentioned Tim Dent of Coldwell Banker, who famous that in a “regular market” one may count on wherever from 220 to 360 lively listings. The quantity dropped to the low 30s through the worst of the pandemic and now stands within the 70s.
As of Aug. 10, listings ranged from a one-bedroom, 943-square-foot rental on the Fox Hill improvement, priced at $204,990 with a month-to-month home-owner price of $466 and annual taxes of $2,845, to a six-bedroom, 11,697-square-foot equestrian “mini-estate” within the Ridgebury space, priced at $4.7 million, with annual taxes of $61,783.
The Vibe
Ridgefield’s attract is specified by the story of Liz Bronkesh Beebe and JD Beebe, a pair of their 30s who’ve two daughters below 2 and a pit bull. When the pandemic hit and the partitions started closing in on their Harlem condo, they lit out for Ridgefield, the place Mr. Beebe was raised.
“We began taking a look at extra commuter-friendly cities, however we weren’t discovering what we actually wished,” mentioned Mr. Beebe, who runs his start-up firm, ThankView, from house and plans ultimately to commute to New York Metropolis twice per week, at most. (“I pity the idiot that does that on daily basis,” he mentioned). “Ridgefield, with so many eating places and the theater, the 2 theaters, the movie show — the downtown is bustling in a manner I don’t bear in mind, rising up.”
The Colleges
Within the 2020-21 college 12 months, the Ridgefield school district served 4,867 college students at six elementary faculties, two center faculties and Ridgefield Excessive Faculty. The coed physique was 82 % white, 7 % Hispanic, 6 % Asian and 1 % Black. Amongst college students who opted to take state checks, 86 % met requirements in studying, versus 58 % statewide; 78 % met requirements in math, versus 47 % statewide. The district spends a mean of $22,107 per pupil, in contrast with the state median of $20,069.
In its 2021 survey, U.S. News & World Report ranked Ridgefield Excessive Faculty eighth in Connecticut, based mostly on its 99 % commencement price and Superior Placement program (the college presents 20 A.P. programs, and 61 % of scholars handed at the least one A.P. examination), amongst different metrics.
The Commute
As a result of Ridgefield’s Branchville station runs most of its trains by way of Stamford, commuters to New York Metropolis usually go for a direct Metro-North line from Katonah or Goldens Bridge in New York. A shuttle bus runs from Jesse Lee Church on Most important Avenue to Katonah station at 6:41 a.m. on weekdays. The journey from Katonah to Grand Central Terminal takes between an hour and 90 minutes; a month-to-month move is $384.
The Historical past
In December 2019, development employees renovating an early-18th-century home found the skeletal stays of 4 males who could have perished within the Revolutionary Warfare conflict generally known as the Battle of Ridgefield. The battle befell on April 27, 1777, when Continental Military generals, together with Benedict Arnold, led 700 militiamen and regulars in an assault of British troops who had simply blown up an inland provide depot and have been returning to their ships on Lengthy Island Sound.
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